Application of ceramic color



Aug. 21, 1945. E. HARDESTY APPLICATION OF GERAMIO COLOR Filed Aug. 50, 19 11 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 v fan/mon tor Eugene Hardesh 21, 1945- E. HARDESTY 2,383,190

' APPLICATION OF CERAMIC COLIQR F'ildAug. 50, 1941 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Aug.21, 194s. 'E. HARDESTY 2,383,190 APPLICATION OF CERAMIC COLOR Filed Aug. 30, 1941 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Eugezaefiazdesiy Patented Aug. 21, 1945 UNITE STATES APPLICATION OF CERAIWIC CUEGR Eugene Hardesty, New Brighton, Pa, asslgnor to Fuller Label & Box Company, Pittsburgh, Pa, a corporation of Pennsylvania Application August 30, 1941, Serial No. 409,105

6 Claims.

are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which depict forms of mechanism that have been found satisfactory in actual operation and which be applied directly to the ware or indirectly to it i by application first to some transfer medium such as decal paper or equivalent sheet material, or to a screen of silk, copper wire or the like.

Primary objects of the invention are to improve the qual ty of the decoration and to reduce the costs of the decorating operations.

In the best prior art methods known to me, it

is customary to apply directly to the ware, or to an appropriate transfer sheet of any one of the types above indicated, a coating of some adhesive medium, such as decal varnish, dextrine gumming or the like, conforming exactly to the area intended to be colored. A su table ceramic color or oxide, including some appropriate frit, is then dusted over the sheet or ware and is retained thereby in the coated areas only. The capacity of the coating to retain the applied dust is limited,

and the results obtained upon subsequent firing have been unsatisfactory byre'ason of paleness and/or unequal distribution of the color. Attempts have been made to overcome this difficulty by rubbing or wiping the dust into the adhesive coating, but the results have not been commercially successful because it has been impossible to cause a layer of adhesive coating of the required thinness to hold ceramic color dust in sufficient quantity or uniformity of distribution. It has also been attempted in the case of colors requiring an unusually heavy deposit to apply successive layers of adhesive coating, each with its own layer of embedded ceramiccolor, but this has caused blistering during the firing operation resulting from the bubbling of gases from the lower layers through the upper layers.

I have discovered that a single layer of conventional printed adhesive can be caused to retain an entirely adequate depth of ceramic color dust if the dust be worked down into the adhesive coat by comparatively rapid vibration of a brush or annlogous applicator surface, and/or of the object or sheet itself.

Transfer sheets and ware bearing the unprecedented-1y deep layer of ceramic color dust produced by practice of the present. invention result in a finished product having remarkably deep color uniformly distributed and entirely devoid of blisters.

Certain selected embodiments of the invention ill will sufficiently illustrate the. broad principles of the invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a machine for applying ceramic color to transfer mediums of sheet form;

Fig. 2 is an end elevatlonal view of the machine; Fig. 3 is a transverse section through the machine;

Fig. 4 is a section along line 41-6 of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a section through 55 of Fig. 2; Fig. 6 is a section along 6-6 "of Fig. 2;

Fig. 7 is an and elevation, partially broken away and in section, of the drum assembly;

Fi 8 is a side elevational view of a machine in inoperative position for applying ceramic color direct to ware, and

Fig. 9 is a similar view, partially-in section, illustrating the machine in operative position.

Referring to the drawings, and first to Figs. 1

and 2, the machine there shown comprises a stationary framework consisting of a pair of annular support members I bolted by cap screws or the like 2 to a table bed 3 of convenient height. It will be understood that the annular members i are spaced longitudinally apart with centers on a common axis, so that they define a generally cylindrical space between them. Axially through this space is positioned a shaft #3 which is journaled near its opposite ends in bearings 5 mounted on supporting posts 6 which are rigidly secured in the table bed. A drum l is fast on the shaft 4 and is rotated thereby. Any suitable pulley, gear or the like, coupled to appropriate power (not shown). may be used to drive the shaft and rotate the drum.

It will be understood that the drum fits between the stationary frame members and is of a diameter somewhat smaller than that of the frame members.

Secured to the frame members I in the upper zones thereof is a hopper trough 8 having a bot-- tom opening spaced slightly above the periphery of the drum. A blade-like clamping member 9 extends lengthwise along the drum periphery and I is urged downward into theplane of that periphery by some such means as coil springs Ill encircling posts I I at opposite ends of the drum and reacting between the drum shell and rollers 12 mounted on the inner ends of the posts. rollers, of course. travel in a circular orbit as the drum rotates. A frame structure l3 isbolted to These each of the supporting frames I and mounts an arcuate cam track l4 on which each of the rollers I2 rotates during part of its orbital travel. The cam tracks are made circumferentially adjustable with relation to the frames 1 by slotted engagement of the bolts I5 which secure them to the frame structure I3, and each cam track is appropriately profiled to lift the clamping blade 9 radially outwardly during part of each rotation of the drum.

The function of the blade 9 is to receive and clamp the leading edge of asheet of ceramic color transfer medium onto the drum. This is easily accomplished by slipping such edge of the sheet under the blade when the blade is spaced from the drum periphery, i. e., at a point in the rotation of the drum reached just prior to the position shown in Fig. 2. Immediately thereafter, on rotation of the drum, theroller I2 becomes lowered to the dwell of the cam track I4 and clamps the sheet onto the drum.

The sheet has been previously printed or otherwise treated with suitable adhesive material. It passes under the hopper trough B and a liberal quantity of ceramic color is discharged onto it from the hopper. The sheet then passes successively under each of a plurality of brushes or pads I6 which are of elongated form and extend along the drum periphery parallel to the drum axis. These brushes are mounted on stems I'I received in arcuate supports I8 which encircle part-of the drum periphery and are concentric with the drum. The opposite ends of the supports I8 are cushion-mounted in upper and lower lengthwise frame membersv I9 which are secured at their opposite ends to the frame members I as by bolts 20.

One suitable form of cushion mounting has been illustrated and comprises an elongated bolt45 extending through an oversized opening 46 in frame member I! and thence through a fitted opening 41 in support I8. A dished-out spring washer 48 is seated between'the head 49 of the bolt and the outer face of frame member I9. Between the inner face of frame member l9 and the outer face of support I8 are interposed two oppositely disposed spring washers 50 and El which, for illustrative purposes, are positioned with the convex surfaces contiguous to one another, the margins of the concave surfaces bearing, respectively, against the inner face of frame member I9 and the outer face of support I8. An additional spring washer 52 may be positioned between the inner face of support I8 and the nut 53, which is taken up onthe bolt sufllciently to place the washer under some tension. Thus the supports I8 and the applicator pads or brushes supported thereby are free for limited vibratory movement in all directions with respect to the stationary frame members I9 on which they are thus cushionmounted. V

A tie member 2| spans the supports III, conveniently at about the midpoint of each. and mounts a vibrator mechanism 22, here shown as of-the electrically energized type, employing an unbalanced rotor. Coil springs 23 encircled about the stems I'I react between the supports I8 and the brush elements and resiliently press the brush surfaces toward the drum periphery, and these spring mounts, together with the cushioned connections between the ends of the supports I8 and the lengthwise frame members I9, cause the brush elements to vibrate radially, laterayy and longitudinally with relation to the drum when the vibrator element 22 is driven.

An elongated coil spring 24 may be connected under tension between some part of the vibrating assembly and some fixed part of the machine. In Figs. 1-3 such a spring is shown connected between the vibrator bed 2I and a. longitudinal frame element I9, while in Fig. 7 such a spring 24' is shown connected between frame I near the lower lengthwise frame member I9 and a point 25 on the vibrating assembly near the corresponding upper lengthwise frame member I9.

In use, the vibrator 22 is driven to inducevibrations in the brushes at the rate of not less than 400 per minute, and preferably as high as 7600 per minute. As the sheet of transfer medium moves progressively under the several brushes, with a comparatively thick coating of ceramic color deposited on it from the feed trough 8, the rapidly vibrating brushes function to embed a very considerable quantity of the ceramic color down in the coated areas of the sheet. Color falls from the uncoated, and to some extent also from the coated, areas of the sheet and is collected from beneath the machine for re-use. The plurality of vibrating brushes operate to embed ceramic color into the coated areas to a depth heretofore believed to be impossible of attainment.

The center portion of the table is slotted length- I ing, to be applied in the usual manner to ceramic ware or the like.

While I have shown the vibrator 22 mounted to vibrate the entire cushioned framework and consequently all the brushes, smaller vibrators may be arranged directly on one or more of the individual brushes so as to vibrate such brushes only. In that casethe other brushes may be fixed with relation to the stationary frame members I, so as to transmit more or less vibration.

In Figs. 8 and 9, which constitute the subject matter of my divisional application Serial No. 573,998, the mechanism is designed to apply ceramic color directly to the ware, here shown as a plate or fiat dish. As shown in Fig. 8, thls device may comprise a stationary frame consisting of four vertical posts 30 upstanding at the corners of an imaginary rectangle from a bed 3| and connected by spaced superposed plates 32 havin aligned openings loosely receiving the two or more bars 84 of a movable frame. This movable frame terminates at its bottom in a brush backing 35, mounting a brush 38, and terminates upwardly in a horizontal plate 31 on which is securely mounted a vibrator element 38, here shown as of the electrically energized type.

Upwardly and downwardly projecting pins 39 extend from the lower and upper rigid frame plates 32 respectively and coil springs .40 encircle these pins and react between the plates 32 and a floating equalizer plate 4| fixedly secured to rods 84. A bail or handle 42 is secured to the vibrator bed plate 81, by which the vibrating frame may be elevated as a unit from the ware 43 which in use of the device is positioned on the stationary bed 3I directly below the brush 36. Gravity latches 44 swing from the vibrator bed 31 to the upper stationary plate 32 and hold upper springs 40 coniserted beneath the brush or withdrawn therefrom.

drawings, the floating or spring suspension of the vibrator and applicator surfaceswith reference to the surface on which the color has been deposited obtains relative vibratory movement in all directions between the two surfaces; l

The cushion mountings by which the arcuate pad supporting members 58 of Figs. 1-7 and the vibrator itself, are connected to rigid frame members i9 permits limited movement of the pads in all directions with reference to such supporting frames and, of course, with reference to the color deposit. Springs 24, which are secured at one end directly-or indirectly to arcuate supports i8 and at the other to some point fixed with reference to main frame 1, supply a constant reaction tendency to movement of the pads imparted by thevibrator in any direction away from those ends of ceived through openings on spaced main frame plates 32, the play of bars 34 obtained thereby permits movement of the applicator or brush 36 What I claim is:

1. In the method of applying ceramic color to a transfer sheet prepared with an adhesive coating, the steps which comprise depositing ceramic color on the coated surface of said sheet,moving such surface into contact with an applicator surface, and then embeddingthe color in the coating by vibrating the applicator surface with reference to said sheet at not less than substantially dotlvib'rations per minute in all directions.

2. In the methods of applying ceramic color to a transfer sheet preparedwith an adhesive coating, the steps which comprise depositing ceramic color on the coated surface of said sheet,

.movingi such surface substantially transversely with reference to an applicator into contact therewith, and then-embedding the color in the coating by vibrating the applicator surface with reference to said sheet at not less than substantially 400 vibrations per minute in all directions.

3. In the method of applying ceramic color to a transfer sheet prepared with an adhesive coating, the steps which comprise depositing ceramic color on the coated surface of said sheet, moving such surface in an arcuate path into contact with an applicator, and then embedding the color in the coating by vibrating the applicator in any direction with reference to the main frame and the ware supported thereby on which the color has been deposited. When in use thebrush v it is floatingly suspended in contact with the deposited color by means of equalizer springs 4|] bearing in opposite directions on equalizer plate M. These springs provide a reactionary force against the forces of the vibrator imparting movement to the applicator and, together with the play of rods 34 in their bearings, serve to permit tions with reference to the fixedly positioned ware d3.

In the use of the device illustrated in Figs. 8

and 9 the ware is-directly printed or otherwise the usual manner.

It will be understood that vibrating elements other than the electric devices herein disclosed by way of exempiification may be used. Itis also to be understood that the work to be orna,

merited may be of any customary shape and character of surface, and that the bonding medium, ceramic color and other materials used in practicing the invention may be any which are well known inthe'art. 1

In all mechanical embodiments of the invention, and in the practice of the method, it is immaterial whether the ware or sheet surface to which the color is to be applied be vibrated or be restrained against vibration, it being necessary only that the ware or sheet and the applicator, e. g., the several types of brushdisclosed in the illustrative embodiments, be relatively vibrated. Accordingly I contemplate variations of the illustrated mechanisms in which the work will be vibrated and the applicators will be restrained against vibration.

' vibratory movement of the applicator in all direclatter by vibrating at least one applicator of with referenceto said sheet at not less than substantially 400 vibrations per minute in all .directions.

ceramic color on the coated portion 0! said sheet,

moving the supporting surface to bring the coatedportion of said sheet in contact with an applicator, then embedding the color in the coating by vibrating the applicator with reference to the coated surface at not less than-substantially 400 vibrations per minute in all directions, and moving said supporting surface to separate it from said applicator.

5. That method of applying ceramic color to a transfer sheet prepared with an adhesive coating which comprises the steps of securing said sheet upon a supporting surface, depositing ceramic color on the coated portion of said sheet, moving thesupporting surface to bring the coated portion of said sheet in contact with'an applicator, then embedding the color in the coating by vibrating the applicator with reference to the coated surface during continued movement of the latter at .not less than substantially 400 vibrations per minute in. all directions, and moving said supporting surface to separate it from 'moving the supporting surface in an arcuate path transversely past a series of applicators, then embedding the color in the coated portion of said sheet during continued movement of the said series at not less than substantially 400 vibrations per minute in all directions, and continuing movement of said supporting surface to separate it from said applicator while removing EUGENE HARDESI'Y. 

